1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector that permits safe and convenient attachment of a wound drainage tube to a fluid reservoir.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is commonly necessary to draw various fluids from parts of a patient's body; for example, from surgical wound cavities. The procedure generally involves a flexible tube that leads out of the body from the site to be drained and that is connected to a fluid inlet on a wound drainage reservoir, which may be a vacuum drainage bottle. When the bottle is evacuated, by pumping on a second inlet for example, fluid is drawn into the reservoir. Alternatively, the reservoir may be evacuated and sealed, then stored in the evacuated state until it is used. In that case, no second inlet is needed, and fluid is drawn into the reservoir simply by attaching the drainage tube to the single inlet and opening the inlet. As the fluid enters the reservoir, the pressure in the reservoir rises. After the pressure rises above a certain level, adequate drainage is no longer achieved, and the bottle must be replaced. Of course, both the single-inlet and double-inlet bottles must be replaced when they are full. The process of removing a full bottle and replacing it with an empty one may pose a risk of contamination to the patient and/or the health care provider. There are a variety of devices that have been designed to minimize the risk in this and similar medical procedures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,949, issued July 24, 1979 to Thanawalla, discloses a connector for effecting aseptic joining of two bodies to permit fluid to flow between them. The connector includes male and female elements that are telescopingly engaged to permit the fluid transfer. Both the male and female elements have a rather complex and specialized structure, requiring close tolerances.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,359, issued Apr. 16, 1985 to Vaillancourt, discloses a connector that is particularly adapted for continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. The connector includes male and female halves in which a movable, resilient, and penetrable protector is held on the female half before attachment and retained by the male half when the female half is withdrawn. Since there is but a single protector, when the two halves are not joined together, potentially contaminating contact can be made to the unprotected assembly half (the male half before attachment; the female half after). Furthermore, close tolerances are required to assure that the friction fit of the protector in the female half is great enough to hold the protector initially but is not as great as the fit in the male half.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,054, issued Jan. 14, 1986 to Gustavsson, discloses a fluid transfer system that involves a puncturing member that penetrates a sealing membrane to effect the transfer. The system is designed to prevent air contamination during transfer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,674, issued Feb. 11, 1986 to Phillips et al., discloses a continuous vacuum drainage system for wound drainage. The system is designed to permit a wound drainage reservoir to be removed from a vacuum pump ("base unit") without causing the partial vacuum in the reservoir to be lost thereby. Connection between the drainage tube and reservoir is made using a sleeve on the drainage tube for removable telescoping over an upstanding boss on the bottle. An O-ring seals the sleeve against the boss to prevent leakage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,020, issued June 23, 1987 to McPhee, discloses a connector that uses a double-pointed hollow needle, one point of which includes a removable section. The device is designed for making connections to the interior of a sealed container, while also securely attaching to the outside of the container. Double-pointed needle devices have also been used for venous blood specimen collection, under the mark "Vacutainer" specimen tubes, by Becton-Dickinson.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,568, issued Sept. 6, 1988 to Fournier et al., discloses a hazardous material container and a device that permits a user to dilute the material and then fill a syringe with the diluted material without any of it escaping into the atmosphere.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,976, issued May 1, 1990 to Calzi et al., discloses a device for collecting and holding blood samples. The blood is held in an evacuated tube that is closed by a penetrable stopper and that has a diaphragm below the stopper, in the tube. The diaphragm forms a supplemental barrier between the interior of the tube and the environment when the stopper is removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,423, issued May 22, 1990 to Malmborg, discloses a connector for a container that has an opening which is closed by means of a pierceable closure. The connector permits a solvent to be safely introduced into a vessel containing a dry powder solute, which may be a drug.
None of the above-described related art discloses a simple connector device that broadly enables a fluid to be transferred from a tube into a reservoir, while protecting both the fluid and the operator from possible contamination from the other before, during, and after transfer.